| 5. Linguistic Exegesis This verse’s narrative progression is marked by two vav-consecutive verbs, vayelekhu {וַיֵּלְכוּ֩ | wayyĕlĕḵû} ‘and they went’ followed by vayyaggidu {וַיַּגִּ֨ידוּ | wayyaggîḏû} ‘and they told’. The prepositional phrase leDavid {לְדָוִ֤יד | lə-Dāwîḏ} sets David as the recipient of the report. The verb sequence vayyishlakh {וַיִּשְׁלַ֣ח | wayyišlāḥ} ‘and he sent’ with liqratham {לִקְרָאתָ֔ם | liqrāʾtām} ‘to meet them’ conveys purpose. The causal conjunction ki-hayu {כִּי־הָי֥וּ | kî-hā-yû} ‘because they were’ introduces the participial clause ha-anashim nikhlamim meod {הָאֲנָשִׁים֖ נִכְלָמִים֣ מְאֹד | hā-ʾănāšîm nîḵlāmîm meʾōḏ} ‘the men were humiliated very’ describing their state. The shift to direct speech begins with vayomer {וַיֹּאמֶר֙ | wayyōmer} ‘and he said’ and hamelech {הַמֶּלֶךְ֙ | ham-méleḵ} ‘the king’, followed by the imperative shevu {שְׁבוּ֙ | šĕḇû} ‘stay’ and the locative bi-rekho {בִירֵח֔וֹ | bî-reḥô} ‘in Jericho’. The temporal clause ad asher-yetzamach {עַד אֲשֶׁר־יְצַמַּ֥ח | ʿad ʾăšer-yĕṣammāḥ} ‘until it grows’ attaches to zekankhem {זְקַנְכֶ֖ם | zᵉqānḵem} ‘your beard’, and the perfect veshavtem {וְשַׁבְתֶּֽם | wə-šāḇtēm} ‘and you return’ indicates the consequence. English syntax shifts to subject–verb–object, and Hebrew idioms like “grow beard” are rendered literally to preserve cultural nuance. |